By Margaret Thompson & María Suárez Toro

Despite government claims to the contrary, development of oil in Costa Rica would violate numerous international treaties that have been signed or ratified by that government.  These include the Rio Declaration and the Agenda 21 Program of Action from the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1993,  the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention on Biodiversity, and the Convention on Climate Change, among others.  Since Costa Rica ratified these treaties and agreements, under its constitution, these agreements are treated as law, meaning they are legally binding.
 

Damage to a rocky beach from an oil spill

These agreements such as the Declaration of Rio about the environment and development in 1992 and the Convention on Climatic Change in 1993 and its Kyoto Protocol in 1997 call for the stabilization of the global climate through the reduction of its fuel combustion.  The Kyoto Protocol commits all governments to reduce their emissions by 5.7% in relationship to what they emitted in 1990.

At the present, the governments that signed the Convention on Climatic Change, Costa Rica being one of them, should be investing their resources in search of new forms of production and consumption of energy that do not affect the environment and the health of people.

Listen to Emily Yozell, an attorney and activist, explain these national and international legal instruments and their relevance to the oil development struggle in Costa Rica:

Governments and Oil Companies Resist International Climate Protection Measures Calling for Alternative Energy Development
Some of the main countries that consume fuel such as the United States, Australia and Japan, refused to implement the Kyoto Protocol, which at this point is almost symbolic because in 1995 the intergovernmental panel about Climatic Change created by the governments of the world and in which 2,700 experts on the topic drafted a report in which they recommended a reduction of 60% in relationship to 1990 to prevent more climatic catastrophes.

Today although the entire world knows it, the oil companies, instead of dedicating their multimillion dollar resources to create alternative clean sources of energy, are instead using their power and influence over governments to continue putting their thirst for profits above those of humanity's need to to put itself in harmony with the rest of nature to to survive on this planet. The planet is a living being that has the capacity to regenerate itself alone.  One of the mechanisms it has used is that of expelling the species that threaten its natural balance. It will survive.  The ones that are threated with extinction are us the human species unless we take seriously the problem and without ambivalence.

In this context, because of its conservationist policies of the past, Costa Rican is one of the countries that could qualify under the Kyoto Protocol to become a pilot project for the Mechanisms of Clean Development, and Costa Rican has undertaken it by looking for alternative and cleaner forms of energy.   For example, it has developed a third geothermal plant in the Miravalles Volcano in Guanacaste, that uses the vapor of the volcano to turn it into clean energy for the environment and its inhabitants.  The plant has been built within a model of public and private cooperation that is more favorable than the oil concessions because it stipulates that although it is in the hands of a private company such as the Geothermic Company of Guanecaste, the contract stipulates that after five years it will belong to the Costa Rican State at no cost.

However, in the midst of these efforts in the country to protect the environment and the health of its inhabitants, the last three presidential administrations have put up the country for sale to the big international companies that are desparately searching for new sources of  oil in order to increase their profits despite the consequences.
 

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